11/21/16

For those of you who have been following some of the different machinist related Makers and craft artists I have been writing about lately, you know that the scene is exploding with various machined art objects and kinetic art pieces. There is a proliferation of metal spinners, tops, and other fidget works that speak to both function and aesthetics. It has all the makings of a budding creative arts movement. It is an exciting time to be in the world of machinists, with any luck, it will continue to evolve.

It is my desire to continue to add my voice to this growing movement. And while I am at it, see if I can't find some inspiration for larger and more ambitious machined sculpture in the process.

So with that in mind, the day is finally here to unveil a new Pocket Sculpture project, I am going to refer to it as the "S2" until a proper nickname takes hold. This one builds on the original "Slider" design and takes it somewhere completely different. I intend to attempt to spin this off into a larger sculptural object as well.

This design is a return to symmetry and a much more complex assemblage than its predecessor. And while visually, the relationship between this work and the original Slider may be obvious, from a machining perspective this work is an entirely different animal.

The original Slider was a triumph in creating complexity using as few steps as possible, this work is simply complex for how elegant it seems. This work has many more machined parts and while the Slider could be built in just 11 machining steps, this one requires well over 33 machining operations (depending on how you count).

So even though the unavoidable pull toward complexity won out for this particular design, I think it is a natural next step for this journey into trivially functional art, and I am very happy with the result.

As you can see in the above image, the sliding mechanism is double acting, meaning both ends can be extended and retracted independent of one another. With a little practice this piece can be flipped and clicked in a number of different ways. So far it has been quite a lot of fun to prototype and test.

I will say it can be a little more rough on the hands than its predecessor, but the price of finding a balance between form and function seems to be the development of a few well earned calluses.

(It's really not as bad as I am making it out to be, but still worth mentioning.)

The visible hardware on this work is another area where I had to depart from the norm to reconcile how the sculpture worked, with how it looked. Figuring out a method to keep the ends from overextending (and sending springs and bearings flying everywhere) required a bit of a visual compromise in that regard.

So even though I had to bend the rules a bit and leave some set screws visible while the work was in the open position. It is a compromise that I can live with as the hardware is only visible when in operation. When closed, the piece is an attractive sculpture like any of my other works.

I have settled on two metal combinations for this design, all stainless steel and a stainless steel with brass inner element.

The work is 1.25" wide and a bit over 3" long when closed. While extended it is just under 4" inches Long

I want to use this small design as well as the experience of building this edition to create a larger, more elaborate "one of a kind" work.

I like the idea of using the internal logic of a functional art piece to spin out a completely non functional, full size sculptural work.

You know, intentionally going further down the rabbit hole.

I have the beginnings of a larger design based on this prototype, but I am going to take my time and let the project have plenty of influence along the way.

Important information if you want to collect one of these:

Because I am going to be building a larger work based off of this piece, it means I am going to have to limit the edition size to a much smaller batch than my last project. (probably 30 or so works total)

I will be doing a sign up pre-order just like the last time, but depending on how many sign ups I get, I will be running part of it like a SUS or "Sign Up Sale"

This is how it will work:

-I will open the preorder on Monday November 21st, at 11AM Eastern Standard time via my newsletter. I will leave the sign up open until the following Monday (1 week)

-The first 15 people who sign up will be able to purchase the works directly.

-After the first 15 sign ups, and after the pre-order closes, I will randomly select an additional 15 people using a random number generator to award the remaining 15 slots on the list.

After the sign up sale closes on November 28th, you will not be able to sign up for a chance to collect one of these. But as always, I would encourage you to join my newsletter so that you can get a first look at my sculptures as I complete them and catch future projects of this nature.

11/2/16

The day has finally arrived when I get to share this collaboration between Richard Stadler from Billetspin tops and myself. It has been very hard keeping this special project quiet, and I am just beside myself with the results.

Above you will see two objects, on the left is one of my signature machined metal sculptures, on the right is the spinning top design that inspired that sculpture.

As some of you may remember, a few months ago I wrote a post discussing some of the machinists who are doing interesting aesthetic work within their own niches. Makers working with industrial processes in creative ways that maybe goes unnoticed by the arts community because it is viewed as craft, or too utilitarian. Regardless, to me, the content of the work feels very relevant to any conversation about material, technology, and art. . One of those machinists was a spinning top maker named Richard Stadler.

Where as I tend to characterize myself as someone with no formal training, who came to machining in pursuit of making sculpture, or "art for art sake. Rich grew up surrounded by machine tools and has worked for his family machine shop since he was 13 years old. He has manufactured custom parts for all manner of equipment for many decades. and fits the ideal of a formally trained craftsman who has started to branch out into more artistic avenues of expression.

To this end, Rich has been making some of the most beautiful machined objects I have ever encountered (additional examples above). His tops have attracted an incredibly large following and are highly prized collectors items in there own right. These are not toys, these are immaculate works of art. I encourage everyone who is unfamiliar to go over toRich's website and look around.

Following my previous post, Rich and I struck up an email correspondence and before long I found myself pitching him an idea to do do a collaboration. I thought it might be fruitful to take on a project I might not normally undertake in the hopes it would help me see things from a different perspective, and give me an opportunity to explore new lines of thinking about my own sculpture-work.

But while I was eager to collaborate with Rich, I did not want to simply design a top and call it a day. I was interested in using this as an opportunity to build bridges between some of the different corners of the machinist world. I am always looking for ways to inspire machinists to make art, and also inspire artists to take up machining as a medium. so I wanted the project to be something that could fit into a couple of different categorical boxes.

So with this in mind, the basic premise became this; With Rich's guidance and advice, I wanted to design a spinning top with visual elements that could translate into a broader sculptural composition. The starting point would be something that hued closely to Rich's area of expertise, but with my own flavor and aesthetic.

From there, I would use that design experience as a springboard to make a whole new stand alone sculpture, something that would be "one of a kind" a more traditional "non functional" sculpture that would incorporate the visual elements from the top design. It would be a conceptual bridge between our two means of expression.

I know this is a long way of saying we collaborated on something, but I think the details are important. It is in the details of designing and machining something that I get most of my ideas, and Rich understands that as well as anyone I have met.

Coming up with a workable design within the specific set of constraints that spinning tops demand proved challenging for me at first. Size requirements were a limiting factor I was not accustomed to, as most tops are pretty small by my standards. Eventually, with some good tips from Rich, I got into a rhythm and probably annoyed him half to death with an avalanche of concept sketches and emails at all hours of the night.

After exchanging notes for quite awhile, we hit on something with a central design theme that I thought was flexible enough to translate into a bigger work and we moved forward from there.

The end result is what you see hear, and by all accounts the reaction has been incredible. Rich has also reported that this project helped him to see his medium with fresh eyes, and got his gears turning on some new designs of his own.

And I am very thankful for the opportunity to design within a new ecosystem of constraints (something I absolutely love) and leverage that experience as a way to come to a sculpture concept I otherwise never would have.

Some additional notes about the Pieces: The tops themselves are just 1.25”D x 1.32”Tall.

The Sculpture is 5.5” x1.7” and man is it heavy.

While I did much of the design work for both the tops and the sculpture, Rich will be undertaking the fabrication of the limited edition run of those tops, which will be available in a number of materials and finishes, but will be made in extremely small quantities.

If you are interested in owning one of the Bathgate tops (They are being called “The Bathgate”crazy right?!) or one of Rich's tops more generally, I would encourage you to join hisFacebook group page (click here to join it). His tops sell out instantly, so he has too distribute them through a raffle system. These tops are no different and will be handled through what is called a "sign up sale". (this is the portal for that)

He will be releasing them as he makes them so they will start trickling out this coming Friday.

Additionally, if you are interested in the sculpture I made for this project, that process will run through me as usual (just email me). But I should note there is only the one, so if more than one person is interested in adding it to their collection, I will have to try to come up with a way to decide where it goes to live in as fair a manner as possible.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this as much as I have. As always, comments and questions are welcome.

9/30/16

I thought it was about time I get an official blog post up about this project, as this piece has been out in the world for many weeks, and is one of the most popular things I have ever done.

Originally conceived of as a piece of pocket art, this little triptych was designed at the suggestion of two friends of mine. There were three versions. Two of them were solid one-piece works in bronze and stainless steel. These two were intended to serve as more traditional worry-stone type works, pieces that you could hold and contemplate, but were static.

The third design was a kinetic piece (one of my first actually). It was made out of Stainless steel with a simple bronze insert that moved. This design was by far the more popular of the bunch, and has been so well received, that I am at quite a loss for how to properly react.

Although I never properly named this project (there just wasn't time), it has taken on quite a few nicknames in just a few short weeks.

The "Slider" is the most common nickname, based upon its simple and intentionally trivial function. The little bronze piston literally slides in and out, creating a satisfying clicking sound created by a spring and ball bearing running in what I am now informed by the knife maker community is called a "detent"

Intended as a small edition, I had only anticipated making a dozen or so of these to begin with, but I have had to re-adjust that plan quite a number of times, as so many people are interested in this, I have had to revise the edition size again and again and again.

Under normal circumstances, I am quite satisfied with the idea that all of my works are "one of a kind". Once the design or idea is out in the world, I usually feel that is enough, and one is enough.

But I must admit the idea for this work was, and is, a little different.

In addition to making a small piece of art that was just a joy to hold and contemplate, my secondary intention for this work was to see if maybe I could use it to reach out to the maker community, as well as the various machinist communities I have come to know and respect, but maybe do not feel entirely a part of.

As a person who comes at machine work purely from a fine art perspective, I wanted to attempt to bridge the gap a little between the idea of making craft objects such as knives, rings, tops, tactical gear etc, and the idea of making art objects for their own sake.

One of my goals with all of my work is to try and move the needle for a few of the makers and metal crafts people I have come to admire. People who are doing some amazing things with aesthetics in their given vocations, and maybe just raise the idea that there is fine-art in what they are doing with machine tools within their trade, and maybe encourage others to turn their talents to the arts, and to sculpture.

Not because what they are doing is not already amazing, but just because...."art". (make sense?). I also just want to raise awareness with the general public that there is something really interesting going on in the manufacturing community as a whole.

I think in this instance, the best way to achieve that goal, may not be with one singular large work that people see or visit, but can never own because it is too expensive or someone else has already claimed it.

I think it better in this instance to have many little works, a swarm of little ambassadors such as this....also, I just can't bare to disappoint so many people who want one, so the pressure to make more is very real.

I am sure that all may sound a little pretentious or self serving, but I assure you I am sincere, so do with that what you must.

So, for those of you who have not had the opportunity to secure one of these little guys, but who remain interested in doing so, I can only say that I am trying to figure out how to balance the demand for this object with my other obligations.

I would like to see this project continue to grow, as I think it is an ideal piece to bridge the worlds of sculpture, the maker community, other machinist craft communities, and beyond. It seems to resonate across a wide range of people, so I am committed to seeing what I can do to get more of them into circulation.

I also intend to release a new design of this nature very soon. So if you are not on my mailing list, please sign up, as more news will be coming.

Now with that all said, preparing for upcoming exhibitions and making new work must still come first ,so I have had to suspend ordering temporarily. But know that I am working to squeeze in time to make more, they are actually quite fun to make, so I do not mind provided I have the time.

For now, I am content that there are so many of these little works circling the globe, acting as representatives for my work as well as the idea that machining as a vocation, when turned to the arts, can produce something that resonates around the world.

I will send out updates if and when ordering re-opens, so please be patient with me. Your interest has not gone un-noticed and I do not take it for granted, It is simply that I am a one man shop trying to do a lot with a little.

Again, I am humbled and surprised by how many have shown interest in this project.

I thought it was about time I get an official blog post up about this project, as this piece has been out in the world for many weeks, and is one of the most popular things I have ever done.

Originally conceived of as a piece of pocket art, this little triptych was designed at the suggestion of two friends of mine. There were three versions. Two of them were solid one-piece works in bronze and stainless steel. These two were intended to serve as more traditional worry-stone type works, pieces that you could hold and contemplate, but were static.

The third design was a kinetic piece (one of my first actually). It was made out of Stainless steel with a simple bronze insert that moved. This design was by far the more popular of the bunch, and has been so well received, that I am at quite a loss for how to properly react.

Although I never properly named this project (there just wasn't time), it has taken on quite a few nicknames in just a few short weeks.

The "Slider" is the most common nickname, based upon its simple and intentionally trivial function. The little bronze piston literally slides in and out, creating a satisfying clicking sound created by a spring and ball bearing running in what I am now informed by the knife maker community is called a "detent"

Intended as a small edition, I had only anticipated making a dozen or so of these to begin with, but I have had to re-adjust that plan quite a number of times, as so many people are interested in this, I have had to revise the edition size again and again and again.

Under normal circumstances, I am quite satisfied with the idea that all of my works are "one of a kind". Once the design or idea is out in the world, I usually feel that is enough, and one is enough.

But I must admit the idea for this work was, and is, a little different.

In addition to making a small piece of art that was just a joy to hold and contemplate, my secondary intention for this work was to see if maybe I could use it to reach out to the maker community, as well as the various machinist communities I have come to know and respect, but maybe do not feel entirely a part of.

As a person who comes at machine work purely from a fine art perspective, I wanted to attempt to bridge the gap a little between the idea of making craft objects such as knives, rings, tops, tactical gear etc, and the idea of making art objects for their own sake.

One of my goals with all of my work is to try and move the needle for a few of the makers and metal crafts people I have come to admire. People who are doing some amazing things with aesthetics in their given vocations, and maybe just raise the idea that there is fine-art in what they are doing with machine tools within their trade, and maybe encourage others to turn their talents to the arts, and to sculpture.

Not because what they are doing is not already amazing, but just because...."art". (make sense?)

I think in this instance, the best way to achieve that goal, may not be with one singular large work that people see or visit, but can never own because it is too expensive or someone else has already claimed it.

I think it better in this instance to have many little works, a swarm of little ambassadors such as this....also, I just can't bare to disappoint so many people who want one, so the pressure to make more is very real.

I am sure that all may sound a little pretentious or self serving, but I assure you I am sincere, so do with that what you must.

So, for those of you who have not had the opportunity to secure one of these little guys, but who remain interested in doing so, I can only say that I am trying to figure out how to balance the demand for this object with my other obligations.

I would like to see this project continue to grow, as I think it is an ideal piece to bridge the worlds of sculpture, the maker community, other machinist craft communities, and beyond. It seems to resonate across a wide range of people, so I am committed to seeing what I can do to get more of them into circulation.

I also intend to release a new design of this nature very soon. So if you are not on my mailing list, please sign up, as more news will be coming.

Now with that all said, preparing for upcoming exhibitions and making new work must still come first ,so I have had to suspend ordering temporarily. But know that I am working to squeeze in time to make more, they are actually quite fun to make, so I do not mind provided I have the time.

For now, I am content that there are so many of these little works circling the globe, acting as representatives for my work as well as the idea that machining as a vocation, when turned to the arts, can produce something that resonates around the world.

I will send out updates if and when ordering re-opens, so please be patient with me. Your interest has not gone un-noticed and I do not take it for granted, It is simply that I am a one man shop trying to do a lot with a little.

Again, I am humbled and surprised by how many have shown interest in this project.

8/1/16

Hello again everyone. Today I have three colorful additions to my portfolio I'd like to share with all of you.

A bit of a long write up this time, I am allowing myself the luxury of a ramble as this is my space, but feel free to just look at the pictures if that is what you came for.

This tryptic has its origins in two distinct interests of mine.

On the technical side, I had been working for a while to design geometric elements that work in a modular way to create multiple compositions. After many attempts, I hit on something that seemed to have promise.

Aesthetically, I have been looking for influences from various machinist craft traditions. I have been researching an array of online groups and forums to see how others approach my medium to see if I could build on some of the common visual languages present in our shared work.

Engineering a single element that could be assembled in multiple ways has been something I have been chasing for several years. Although these compositions seem relatively straight forward, finding a geometric form that worked structurally without out negatively impacting the visual composition took a lot of careful planning.

Coming up with a clamping system that would translate across the three works as well was also a challenge.

As I said, the main compositional element for this work is geometrically the same in all three works with the exception of the applied color pallet and the angle of the T slot that is cut through each of them. This slot is shifted for each work to accommodate the varying angles of intersection for the elements from sculpture to sculpture.

Aesthetically, I decided to try something just a little different.

I have been thinking a lot lately about how various vocations and craft traditions find their way into the arts. Being self-trained as a machinist, I have often looked for other sculptors who work like I do. Admittedly I have not found very many contemporaries.

From an arts perspective, machining has been a bit of a holdout in terms of sculptors and artist putting machine tools to use in formalistic explorations like happened with the advent of other historical technologies such as ceramics, photography, glasswork and so forth. Some of this is likely due to equipment cost and the skills gap in getting started, but this probably is not the whole story.

It is evident that it is not very economical to put together a machine shop full of production equipment simply to make “one of a kind” pieces of experimental art, but making work that may not be commercially viable has not stopped artist before. Machine work is over 100 years old, so then where are the other machinist sculptors? Where are the David Smith's of machine work?

I have found a few examples here and there, but In my quest for sculptural peers, I have mostly stumbled upon a multitude of machinist communities that each occupy their own little niche outside of the arts. They are groups who share my appreciation for the beauty in engineering and machining objects, but don’t necessarily express it in terms of the pursuit of sculpture.

I have found groups of artisan knife makers (see here), non precious metal ring makers (here), gun modification enthusiasts, Spinning top enthusiasts (see here), makers of tactical gear, key chains, bottle openers, and too many others to list. They each work on an array of utilitarian objects that function as their canvas and they diligently mix machine craft with aesthetics in a very considered way. These makers occupy a space between industrial commodities and what resembles more traditional fine art crafts.

It is far more nuanced than I can do it justice, and the origins of many of the craftsmen I have found may be far more interesting than my own story, but it has been my observation that those who practice creative machine work themselves, tend to gravitate toward objects with known and viable markets or represent an augmentation of other long running traditions such as blade making.

I could go on about any one of them all day, but the important part is that they are inspiring to me as an artist, and I wonder what, if anything is stopping some of them from pursuing sculpture as I have come to know it. Am I missing something fundamental about my relationship with my craft? Is utility inextricably tied up into doing this kind of work? I must admit I am not sure, but these are some of the themes I visit as I continue to dig into the aesthetics of what it means to be a machinist.

So while I am not particularly interested in joining or becoming a practitioner in any one of these wonderful communities, that does not mean there is not room for dialogue. I have a great appreciation for the work they do, and as a whole they represent a creative community with a visual language that I share. In some ways, it is the closest thing to a peer group that I have found, because while I still have much in common with more traditional sculptors, it can be difficult to talk nuts and bolts when what you do is so technically daunting to those who are unfamiliar.

I also think that machining as a more recognizable fine art form is on the horizon. The Maker Movement has increased the visibility of digital fabrication technologies, and to me, these machinist groups look a lot like fine wood turning communities or ceramics communities. It is my hope that more of these machinists will turn toward making purely aesthetic sculptures and machined works in metal.

Since I personally don't draw much of a distinction between what is craft and what is art to begin with, I thought it interesting to try and start a visual dialogue with some of these other makers. I want to see if I can synthesize visual elements from other machinist who have turned there talents to making stylized, if not expressly artistic, objects of their own.

So, to say it in a short way, I have been captivated by some of these makers and have struck up correspondence with many of them to trade stories and talk shop. I have found that they are expressing a similar instinct to employ machine tools for an aesthetic purpose with sensitivity to what the tools do best, and are working to create a visual language around that within their area of expertise.

From those conversations and just looking at a range of work, I have attempted to design something that spoke to some of the line work, color and design queues I have been picking up from some of my fellow Makers. This triptych is the first installment in that visual conversation.

Build Notes: The green anodizing is a new addition to my shop, I found some of my fellow craftsmen go to much greater lengths than I do to apply patinas and other colorings to there work. Color seems to be an end in itself with some of them.

Each of the three work is just about 12 inches tall with a little variability between them. the base is 5" Diameter with varying widths from work to work.

At first glance some might think this is black and red, but it is actually a deep, nearly black blue.

Thought I would include this image to illustrate the tedious iterative process that lead me to my final design. I counted and I have at least 35 different drawings of various versions of this work. This is a collection of some of them.

Lastly, some postcards from the build. I scrapped 3 parts along the way as well as made one extra as a spare to ensure I could successfully put together all three pieces with flawless parts. Anyway, it was quite a journey.